I beat myself up over appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, says Starmer
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was angry that Peter Mandelson was appointed Britain’s ambassador to the US despite his links to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir said he was the harshest critic of his former counterpart’s appointment to Britain’s top diplomatic post abroad.
The Prime Minister continues to face questions over his decision after the release of government documents showing that before approving Mandelson for the role, he was warned of the “public reputation risk” due to his association with the disgraced financier.
“No one was harsher on me than I was about the mistake I made there,” he told Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“In the days right after this all came out, I was especially hard on myself. So yeah, everyone was criticizing, I understand all that.”
“But no one was criticizing me more than I was. I’m not trying to make it a mitigation or an excuse, but I know I made a mistake.”
“I beat myself up about it,” he added.
The Prime Minister sacked Mandelson in September after newly revealed emails showed the depth and extent of his then-colleague’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different from what was known at the time of his appointment”.
The Conservative Party said it showed an “extraordinary error of judgment” on Sir Keir’s part and that it raised “big questions” about what he knew about the pair’s relationship and when.
Sir Keir said Mandelson lied repeatedly during the investigation.
The Prime Minister continued: “After nearly 20 years of tackling violence against women and girls, I know I made a mistake there and I hate to have made that mistake.
“And I’m dwelling on it. I’m beating myself up about it. It’s definitely not a mistake I’ll repeat. But there’s no criticism anyone can throw at me that’s as harsh as the criticism I level out at myself.”
Last month, MPs ordered the government to release tens of thousands of documents related to Mandelson’s appointment in 2024.
The documents are expected to detail how the peer was vetted and what was known about his relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019.
Mandelson left the House of Lords last month before he was arrested on suspicion of abuse of public office. He allegedly leaked sensitive government information to Epstein while he was a minister.
Mandelson’s spokesman said he “deeply regrets” his contact with Epstein, and allies said the pair did not meet for more than five or six occasions. In January, Lord Mandelson apologized to Epstein’s victims for continuing his friendship with the pedophile financier after his conviction.
The first tranche of documents related to the appointment was released earlier this month. More will follow.
